


The Time Traveler's Wedding

by LeafontheWinf2



Series: Time Traveler's Mate [3]
Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bunny messed up, Hurt Jack Frost, Idiots in Love, M/M, Sad Jack, Time Travel, Weddings, nervous bunny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 19:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4847963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeafontheWinf2/pseuds/LeafontheWinf2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You're late to your own wedding!"</p><p>"Wedding? What wedding?" Aster spluttered before horrible realization smashed into him. "Ah, fuck. That's today." </p><p> </p><p>Aster is running late...by a couple hundred years. Jack is going to kill him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Time Traveler's Wedding

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not going to lie, this story has been the only thing keeping me going today. My FAFSA did not go through, so I'm scrambling to figure out how to pay for college. Added to that, I take the CBEST in less than a week and am freaking out. 
> 
> I'll be fine. And handle it soon. But today, I was able to escape the horror of calling seven different places at my school by writing about how Bunny messed up. And I'm not going to lie, I finished writing it and went "well, I'm not a hundred years to my own wedding so I'm doing well!"
> 
> So if you've had a bad day, take it from me who has had the worst day. Nothing you do can be as bad as Bunny's fuck up. And since he gets his happy ending, we'll get ours as well.

Most people would assume that time travel would mane Aster was on time for everything. That he could just rewind and make it to dinner or the date with time to spare. But that was assuming that Aster could actually remember when he was supposed to be. And he had a bad habit of missing that completely. Like that one time when he showed up two weeks late to a date. Or when he went too far back and ran into a version of Jack who hadn't met the Easter Bunny yet and then snogged him.

...Actually, looking back at it the Blizzard of 68 was all Aster fault. He was actually quite lucky Jack still talked to him nowadays. 

But the worst, the absolute worst one, was when Aster missed his own wedding. 

It had started off like a normal day. Aster had woken up to find the nest empty because Jack was off tending to a blizzard somewhere. That was the hardest part of being an elemental sprite, the tug of the weather. Sometimes Jack would leave for just a few hours, other times it had been for months. One very memorable year, two weather dragons had gotten into a brawl over Tibet and Jack had spent the entire year fixing the mess. So yeah, Aster wasn't surprised to find the nest empty. 

Disappointed not to have Jack there, yes. Surprised, no. But it had been two months since Jack had gone flying out the door and Aster missed the terror something fierce. Sure, Jack enjoyed running his mate ragged but he was bright and sweet and Aster adored him. So it seemed logical to slip back through the timestream to go find Jack. 

When Aster stepped out into the past, he was struck by the silence of the Warren. It was supposed to be filled with Jack's bright laughter and devious smile. Instead it was silent as the grave and there was an air of foreboding in the air.

"Jack?" Aster hissed moving cautiously into the Warren. Something primal deep inside was demanding that he go and find his mate and drag Jack back into the nest where he would be safe and sound. 

There was the sound of something moving outside, something big. Fingering a boomerang Aster prepared himself to face whatever threat was out there before finding his mate. 

An angry North was not what he was expecting to find. Especially when angry North was pointing a sword at Aster's nose. 

"Bunny! What are you doing here!" North bellowed, which made Aster frown.

"What do you mean, mate? I live here."

"Cannot believe you would still be here! Do you have no concept of time?" Well now, that was just plain offensive! Telling a time traveler that. "Did you not think how this would upset Jack? Being late to your own wedding" 

"Wedding? What wedding?" Aster spluttered before horrible realization smashed into him. "Ah, fuck. That's today." 

The Aster of this time will come home to a furious Jack. He'll be met with those bright blue eyes filled with tears and an angry slap and never know just what he did wrong. All in all, it ends with Jack banishing Aster from his sight for a solid six months while the winter spirit moved into the North Pole. All because he had missed his own wedding. 

"He's going to regret this tonight," Aster moaned remembering the localized blizzard Jack had rained down on him.

North's eyes narrowed dangerously, "I believe he is already regretting this."

"What? No, not Jack. I mean me," Aster muttered absently trying to figure out how to get back on Jack's good side, unaware of the stunned look North was sending him. "Flowers, he'll want lots of flowers. Wait, Jack hates flowers. Chocolate then."

"Bunny, my friend, when are you?" North demanded and Aster paused. Right, all his friends knew about the whole time travel thing. Except for Jack. 

"I'm...not going to admit that," Aster managed to stutter out.

North rolled his eyes, "You just don't want to admit how late you are right now." 

Aster was just glad his fur his the furious blush that spread across his face.

~*~

"I'm going to murder him," Jack murmured calmly staring at his hands with laser focus, "Finish what Pitch started. With my bare hands."

"He's joking," Tooth cut in quickly, laughing nervously as she ushered several people out of the room when they started giving Jack nervous looks. The blank expression on the youngest Guardian's face was probably half of the issue. "He's just a little stressed that Bunny's so late! It'll work out in the end!" 

Her nervous laughter trailed off as the door finally closed. Fluttering in the air, Tooth traded a pointed look with Sandy. The Guardian of Dreams just shrugged helplessly before floating over to pay Jack's shoulder. For a brief second Sandy could hope the Dreamsand had calmed Jack down a little, to the point where Sandy thought the whole mess was taken care of.

That is, until the floor started frosting over.

Now Jack had come into his powers very quickly. North was especially proud of how Jack could wield the magic of winter without losing control which made sense, seeing how the Cossack had trained Jack early on. So seeing the frost ferns spread out across the ground showed that Jack was so upset that he lost control. And it took a lot to get him to that point. 

Like his fiancé not showing up to the wedding.

"This was a terrible idea," Jack spat eyeing himself with disgust in the mirror, "I never should have agreed to this." After all, who would want Jack Frost as a spouse? No one wanted a frozen corpse in their bed. Especially one who only brought cold and death with him. Aster had probably come to his senses and ran away as fast as possible. Jack couldn't hate him for that. 

That acceptance made it a little easier for Jack to begin pulling off the formal outfit Tooth and Sandy had put him in earlier. Each undone button was another piece of Jack's heart breaking. It was all Jack could do to keep bitter tears from pouring down his face as the last bit of hope inside of him died. 

Aster had never loved him. Jack just needed to accept that. 

"Tooth, can you tell the guests that the wedding is off?" Jack asked softly struggling to keep his voice steady.

It was even harder not to cry when a Tooth began to fuss over him. "I'm sure that Bunny has a perfectly acceptable reason for being late," Tooth cooed, brushing a stray tear from Jack's cheek. "And if not...well...I still have my sabers ready to go!" 

Jack couldn't help the small smile that spread across his face. He could never stay sad or angry when Tooth turned her full attention on him. It had often led to a furious Jack collapsing in helpless giggles after Tooth was sent to calm him down. Some days Jack wondered why he hadn't gravitated towards Tooth instead of Aster. She was always easier to deal with, never snapped at Jack when tired, and was just pleasant to be around.

Plus, Tooth didn't miss her own wedding.

That decided it. Tooth was obviously the better choice of lifelong companion and Jack had to accept that. Maybe it would keep Jack's heart from being broken again. "Tooth, will you marry me instead?" Jack asked her suddenly, still unable to look away from the mirror. 

"Oh Jack," Tooth cooed, flying over to wrap her arms around Jack's shoulders. Sandy floated up to join the group hug, rubbing his chin against Jack's spiky hair. "We both know you love Aster too much to do that," Tooth whispered. "He may have forgotten this date,but think shout how wonderful he's been to you!"

And Jack tried, he really did. But there's a thing about being upset. When a person is upset, they remember other instances in their lives where they were upset. It's how furious girlfriends were able to make a list of how their partners wronged them on the spot when they were crying. So in this instance Jack was rather upset (who wouldn't be when they were stood up at the altar?) and could only think about the issues and problems he had with Aster. All the happy seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years fell away in that instance.

Jack could remember being stood up on their first date. The pain of the Easter of 68 and the following years of icy silence. The countless times Aster forgot about Jack when Easter same around, how Aster never really understood Jack's terror of deep water. The sick feeling Jack had gotten when Aster had flirted with a wood nymph during Christmas a decade ago. Every time Jack was called cold, frigid, dead, unappealing. A whole list of terrible seconds out of years came to light and it was all Jack could think about.

And really, that explains why Jack just shut down in that instance. "Call off the wedding," Jack whispered, voice thick with tears. He brushed them away absently and turned his back on Tooth's heartbroken expression. "Send everyone home with my apologies for wasting their time," Jack spat, ripping off the fancy vest he'd been put in and throwing it on the end table. The shifting of sand was the only sound in the room before Tooth's defeated sigh thundered across the space. Jack squeezed his eyes shut so he wouldn't sob as Tooth shut the door.

But Jack couldn't keep the tears at bay when Sandy pulled him in for a comforting hug. Instead Jack just turned and buried his face in the soft dreamsand shoulder and let himself have a good cry. It was mourning, no more no less. Mourning for what could have been Jack's new life with Aster but had instead died a flaming death when Aster didn't show up. 

"This was supposed to be a happy day," Jack sobbed, letting himself be held close, "I just...I wanted one happy day where he actually showed up on time!" 

And of course, that was when the door to the room was kicked down. Jack couldn't stop the Wind from lifting him up a good foot due to the surprise. Sandy flashed several bright exclamation marks at the doorway as he floated a little ways below Jack with wide eyes. 

Aster was standing in the doorway, expression wild and eyes just this side away from crazy. His bandoliers were hanging off of his arms, a trail of eggs seemed to stretch behind him. North's bemused expression and Tooth's nervous one as they hovered over Aster's shoulders were lost on Jack as he studied his lost fiancé who was standing before them with a stupid expression on his stupid face. 

Jack didn't even bother to wipe the tears off of his face. "You're late," he growled out, frost spiraling up and over the walls of the room. "You, E. Aster Bunnymund, are very late to your own wedding!"

"You're right," Aster said, taking a hesitant step towards Jack.

"And what do you have to say for yourself?" Jack spat back. 

"I want to say that I love you so much, and I understand that you'd sick and tired of dealing with me," Aster stepped forward grabbing Jack's hands in his. Jack could only stand there in shock and stare back at Aster as his fiancé kept talking. "But even though I drive you insane, and you actually hate my cooking, and don't like art, you still love me. You love me enough to put up with me for all the stupid things I manage to pull when I'm trying to impress you but end up covering you in a bucket of glitter. And even though we've been married for over one hundred years, I'm still as madly in love with you as ever." 

Jack took a step back. He couldn't believe what Aster had just said, he didn't even know how to begin processing it. And it certainly did not help having Aster standing there looking so proud of himself while the other Guardians beamed in pride at the eloquent speech. Because there was just one thing Jack could focus on.

"What do you mean, we've been married over a hundred years?" Jack whispered. 

Aster's expression froze in horror for a brief moment. North and Tooth traded nervous looks. "Haha, you know I'm a time traveler," Aster said nervously, "Right love?"

"No, I didn't know that," Jack snapped back, frost spreading out again. Not from sadness, but this time from anger. "No one ever told me that you could travel in time!"

"Heh...surprise?"

"Surprise? I'll give you a surprise," Jack growled, eyes narrowed dangerously. Aster gulped just as the door slammed shut behind him. A low curse left the pooka as he realized his friends had left him to face off a furious Jack by himself. Normally this was the type of situation Aster would love to find himself in. But he respected his mate's temper and was well aware of how dangerous Jack could be. The last thing he wanted was to be killed by his furious mate.

So with this in mind, it makes sense that Aster was shocked when Jack's arms wrapped around his neck. An icy face was pressed into Aster's neck as Jack began to sob openly, wrapping his legs around Aster's waist and clinging. 

Well, with his mate acting like a limpet, Aster would comply. A happy smile crossed his face as he held Jack close, supporting the slight weight of the winter sprite. "Oh Jackie my love, please don't cry," Aster murmured, "Please don't be sad darling, tell me how to fix this."

"Over a hundred years," Jack sobbed out, "Over a hundred years together!"

"Is...that a problem?"

"No you stupid kangaroo," Jack pulled back and beamed at Aster. Face stained with icy tears, he was still the most beautiful thing Aster had ever seen. "I thinks it's wonderful."

Aster smiled softly and held Jack close. It felt wonderful to hold his mad mate on their wedding day. Before Aster had been too busy trying to get back on time to even be able to touch more than Jack's hands and lips during the ceremony. And after the ceremony...well...there was a reason why humans always said Mother Nature was a bitch. And it didn't help that she adored Jack and despised Aster. 

So it made this moment even sweeter for Aster to cherish. He'd already carried the way Jack looked in his wedding best close to his heart, but it was somehow made even better knowing that there was a new image to join. And if a tiny part of Aster was jealous that his past self got to see Jack in his wedding best twice? Well, that was normally too. Challenge of having a beautiful mate. 

Which made this so much harder. "I have to go now love," Aster murmured pulling slowly away from Jack. "No, hush, don't argue this needs to happen. In about ten minutes my past self is going to be dragged in here by Mother Nature to marry you. And I need to go so he can experience one of the happiest days of his life. Alright?"

Jack offered a watery smile back. "I can accept that," Jack whispered, "But you need to make it up to me in the future."

"Of course. Don't forget, I love you." And with that, Aster disappeared back to the right time line to leave his past self to deal with the mess that had been caused. And now Aster had to figure out just how he could make up missing his own wedding to Jack...

**Author's Note:**

> I'm looking forward to hearing how you liked it. And next chapter should be up soon.


End file.
